Adding Instant Yeast to dry bread mix for later use
I am considering selling my bread mixes online to serve customers outside of my bakery's region.
I will be vacuum packing the flour mix and sending them via post but to remove an extra step for our clients, I would like to know if there is any harm in adding the instant yeast amount to the flour mix itself. I don't have experience with such a scenario and am curious to know what the consensus is on this.
Thank you, Chris
Best Answer
Active dry yeast will lose quality quickly once it is opened.
When you portion the yeast into your flour it will be exposed to oxygen and moisture from the air and flour. Even in vacuuming out the air there will still be some moisture in the flour. Some of the yeast will come out of dormancy and will consume their adjacent food and die.
How much yeast you lose will be variable- probably dependent on how fast you work, how well your vacuum sealer works, the ambient humidity that day, how long and at what temperature the mix is stored before use, etc.
There are plenty of anecdotes of regular people and even pastry chefs leaving yeast at room temperature for a few days with no loss of quality. It is hard to find scientifically observed shelf life numbers because the recommendation is to refrigerate or freeze yeast immediately upon opening. I suspect that it will be hard to find a definitive answer that fits your specific use case.
If you can portion your yeast in an environment free of moisture or air, if your customers will be using your mixes within a few days, or if the mixes will be refrigerated or frozen you should be fine. Otherwise your mixes will sometimes fail to rise.
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Can you add yeast to dough later?
If You Forgot to Add Yeast to Dough If you forgot to add yeast to your dough, you can just mix the yeast called for in the recipe with a few tablespoons of warm (but not hot) water. Let it sit for five to 10 minutes. Once the yeast has activated, fold it into your dough, and allow it to rise.Can you add instant yeast After dough is mixed?
Sneak Preview: Can You Add Yeast After the Dough is Mixed? Yes! I'll show you how to give it the old college try. Keep reading.Can you add yeast to a dry mix?
Compressed or fresh yeast can be crumbled onto the flour\u2014it does not need to be suspended in the water. Instant dry yeast (IDY) is best added without prehydrating. To do this, just add it in dry form directly to the flour in the mixing bowl.Does instant dry yeast have to be added to water before it is added to a recipe?
You don't need to dissolve active dry yeast in lukewarm water before using it. (Even though it still says you should dissolve it on the back of the yeast packet, if you buy your yeast in packets.)Instant Yeast vs Active Dry Yeast | How to Activate Yeast
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Answer 2
You can certainly buy bread mixes to which you only have to add the liquid ingredients. So it's possible. But I don't know if the manufacturers have to do anything clever. Certainly it doesn't look like the yeast is all in one place, or anything like that.
Why not make a test batch of your proposed mix, store it for a couple of weeks, and then make it up? You could compare it side by side with the same recipe made from separate ingredients immediately before kneading.
Answer 3
I recently tried to pre-mix the dry ingredients for a no-knead recipe we use for flat bread cooked in a skillet.
I made up six batches, using them about once a week. I think this time around it took me about seven weeks to use all the batches.
The first batches all worked flawlessly, but this was flatbread, which does not require as fine of a rise. The first batch tasted best by far, but I attributed that to a good splash of oil used for each round. Not sure how much difference the oil vs pre-mixing the dry ingredients made.
The last two batches didn't rise at all. The first of the two had been started late in the day, so it was slipped into a warming oven. I assumed that the failure to rise was due to an overly warm warming oven until I tried that last batch the next day. No warming oven was used, and it did not rise at all.
Answer 4
One thing to consider is that you will have to package the mix in single-batch sizes. Even if you mix it very evenly, the laws of physics mean that after some time, the yeast particles will settle unevenly throughout the package, either close to the top or close to the bottom. So, plan ahead your package sizes.
Other than that, I am not aware of any constraints, but I have not tried it either, so see this as a partial answer.
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